Volume I Part 5 (1/2)

In Num. ii. regulations are laid down respecting the order in which the tribes are to encamp about the tabernacle, and in which they are to set forth. ”On the east side, towards which the entrance of the sanctuary is directed, and hence in the front, Judah, as the princ.i.p.al tribe, is encamped; and the two sons of his mother--Issachar and Zebulun--who were born immediately after him, pitch next to him. On the south side there is the camp, with the standard, of Reuben; and next to him are his brother Simeon, who was born immediately after him, and Gad, one of the sons of his mother's maid. The west side is a.s.signed to the sons of Rachel, with Ephraim at their head. And, _finally_, on the north side, the three other sons of the maids, viz., Dan, Asher, and Naphtali, have their position. In the same order as they encamp they are also to set forth.” (_Baumgarten_.)

Judah is the chief tribe on the chief side. This distinction [Pg 86] is not based on the deeds. .h.i.therto performed by Judah, nor is it the result of any revelation which Moses received upon the subject. It is regarded as a matter of course. And yet, there must necessarily have been some foundation for such a distinction, because, otherwise, it would have called forth the opposition of the other tribes, especially of that of Ephraim. Such a foundation, however, is afforded only by the blessing of Jacob, in which the tribe of Judah appears as the leading one. The complete realization of this prediction is left, indeed, in the hand of G.o.d; but the bearer of honours so great, even although future, must, in the prospect of that future, enjoy, even in the present, a certain distinction; such distinction, however, as does not at all imply sovereignty.

But we are compelled to have recourse to Genesis, and especially to chap. xlix., the more because the whole arrangement of the camp has evidently its foundation in Genesis, and the key to a whole series of facts in it can be found only in chap. xlix. If we ask why it is that the tribes of Issachar and Zebulun are subordinate to Judah; that Reuben, Simeon, and Gad, that Ephraim and Benjamin, that Dan, Asher, and Naphtali are encamped by each other; it is in Genesis alone that we are furnished with the answer.

The position which Reuben occupies specially points to Gen. xlix. As the first-born, he ought to stand at the head; but here we find him occupying the second place. In Gen. xlix. Jacob says to him, on account of his guilt, ”Thou shalt not excel;” and ”the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power,” which up to that time he had possessed, are transferred to Judah. Yet Moses has so much regard to his original dignity, that he places him immediately after Judah; the utterance of Jacob did not ent.i.tle him to a.s.sign to him a lower position.

_Further_,--The reason why Dan stands at the head of the sons of the maids is explained only in Gen. xlix. 16-18, where Dan is specially distinguished among them, and where it is specially said of him, ”Dan shall judge his people.”

If the blessing of Jacob be the production of a later time, then the order of the encampment, which rests upon it, must necessarily be so also; but such an idea will at once be discarded by every man of sound judgment. Even they who refuse to acknowledge Moses as the author of the Pentateuch, admit that [Pg 87] those regulations which bear reference only to the condition of things in the wilderness must have originated from him.

But exactly the same order which Moses in Num. ii. prescribes for the encampment and setting forth of the tribes, is found again in chap.

vii., where there is described the offerings which the princes of the tribes offered at the dedication of the altar. Every prince has here a day to himself, and here also does Judah occupy the first place: ”And he that offered his offering the first day was Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah.”--If any one should venture to set down this chapter also, with all its details, as a fabrication of later times, he would only betray an utter absence of all scientific judgment.

According to Num. x. 14, Judah led the march when they set forth from Sinai.

Balaam's prophecies, the genuineness of which is proved by so many weighty arguments (compare the enumeration of them in my work on Balaam), rest, in general, on the fundamental prophecies of Genesis, but especially on the blessing of Jacob upon Judah.

In Num. xxiii. 24, Balaam says: ”Behold, a people, like a full-grown lion he rises, and like a lion he lifts himself up. Not shall he lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain.” This conclusion of Balaam's second prophecy, which at once demolishes Balak's vain hopes of victory, by pointing out the dreadful power of Israel, unconquerable by all his enemies, and crus.h.i.+ng them all, has an intentional reference to Gen. xlix. 9,--a reference specially suitable for such a conclusion. What was there ascribed to Judah is here transferred to Israel, whose fore-champion Judah is. ”Dost thou think,”

says Balaam to Balak, ”of being able to overcome them, to stop them in their course towards the mark held out to them? Behold, according to an old revelation of their G.o.d, they are a people destroying their enemies with the lion's strength. Therefore, get thee out of their way, lest such a fate befall thee.”

In Num. xxiv. 9, Balaam says, ”He couches, he lies as a lion, and as a great lion, who shall stir him up?” As in the preceding prophecy he had pointed out Israel's dreadful power which secures to him victory in the battle, so here he shows how, even after having finished the battle, this power so intimidates his enemies, that they do not venture to disturb his peace. [Pg 88] That which Jacob had said of Judah, is, with intended literality, here transferred to Israel.

In Num. xxiv. 17, we read: ”I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not nigh: a star goeth out of Jacob, and a sceptre riseth out of Israel, and smiteth the borders of Moab, and destroyeth all the sons of the tumult.”--As the two preceding utterances carry us back to Gen.

xlix. 9, so this one refers to ver. 10, where the sceptre, the emblem of dominion, denotes, just as it does in this pa.s.sage, dominion itself, and where to Judah, and in him to all Israel, the kingdom is promised which shall at last be consummated in the s.h.i.+loh. The meaning of the words, ”A sceptre riseth out of Israel,” is explained in ver. 19 by the words, ”Dominion shall come out of Jacob.” Jacob has in view the internal relations among his descendants, and hence he speaks specially of Judah; but Balaam, in accordance with his object, speaks of Israel only. Jacob points, at the close, to s.h.i.+loh's just and peaceful dominion; but Balaam, who has to do with the enraged and obstinate enemies of Israel, points out, from among the effects produced by the star and sceptre, only the victorious might, and destructive power which these will display in the conflict with the enemies of Israel.

In the blessing of Moses, Deut. x.x.xii. 7, it is said of Judah: ”Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him unto his people; with his hands he fights for himself, and be Thou an help to him from his enemies.”

Even the remarkable brevity of this utterance points back to the blessing of Jacob. With this brevity, the length of the blessing upon Levi, who had been treated too summarily by Jacob, forms a striking contrast. In the case of Reuben also, the attempt to pour oil into the wounds then inflicted is visible. The whole announcement is based upon the supposition that Judah is the fore-champion of Israel; and this supposition refers us back to Gen. xlix. This appears especially in the words, ”Bring him to his people,” on which light is thrown only by Gen.

xlix. It is for his people that Judah engages in foreign wars, and the Lord, fulfilling the words, ”From the prey, my son, thou goest up,”

brings him safely to his people.[16]

[Pg 89]

There can be no doubt that in s.h.i.+loh, as the name of a place, there is a reference to Gen. xlix. 10. They who rightly denied that s.h.i.+loh could, in that pa.s.sage, be understood as the name of the place, could, nevertheless, not feel satisfied as long as they allowed a twofold s.h.i.+loh to exist unconnected with each other. The agreement in the very rare and peculiar form, which nowhere else occurs, cannot well be a matter of accident.

In the Pentateuch, s.h.i.+loh does not occur at all as the name of a place. In the pa.s.sage where s.h.i.+loh is first mentioned--in Josh.

xvi. 6--another name is beside it, and prefixed to it. According to that pa.s.sage, the former name was Taanah. (They who are of opinion that this place was different from s.h.i.+loh, can find no support from the authority of _Eusebius_; it is not said Taanah by s.h.i.+loh, but Taanath-s.h.i.+loh.) After that place had become the seat of the Sanctuary, the holy name _s.h.i.+loh_ took the place of the former natural one. The reason why this name was given to it is indicated in Josh. xviii. 1: ”And the whole congregation of the children of Israel a.s.sembled together at s.h.i.+loh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there; _and the land was subdued before them_.” Compare also xxi. 44, xxii. 4, where it is remarked that at that time ”the Lord gave them rest round about.” (See _Bachiene_, _Palestina_ ii. 3, S. 409 ff.) In the subjection of the country,--in the rest which the Lord had given them from all round about, they saw an earnest of, and a prelude to, the obedience of the nations in general, and to the state of perfect rest which should take place at some future time with the appearing of s.h.i.+loh. Victory, peace! (_Siegfried!_) such was the watchword corresponding to the elevated consciousness of the people. It is an elevation quite similar to that which we so often perceive in the Psalms. ”Sometimes there rises the hope that the Gentiles shall, at some future period, be received among the people of G.o.d--a hope based upon the experience of the Lord's victorious power in the present, in which faith perceives a pledge of the future subjection of the world's power under His sceptre. Thus, in vers. 29-32 of Ps. lxviii., which was composed by David on the occasion of his having, by the help of the Lord, conquered his most dangerous enemies, the Aramites and Ammonites; in Ps. xlvii., written on the occasion of Jehoshaphat's victory over several heathen nations; and in Ps. lx.x.xvii., composed on the [Pg 90]

ground of the joyful events under Hezekiah, the germ of the hope for the conversion of the heathen, which had all along lain dormant in the people, was developed.”[17]

After the main power of the Canaanites had been broken by the expeditions of all Israel under Joshua, Judah begins, at the command of G.o.d, to expel the Canaanites from the territory a.s.signed to him. In Judges i. 1, 2, we read: ”And the children of Israel asked the Lord, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites at the beginning to fight against them? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up; behold, I deliver the land into his hands.” They were concerned to find out the tribe who, by the decree of G.o.d, had been destined to be the fore-champion for his brethren, and with whom they might be sure of a happy commencement of the war. The short answer, ”Judah shall go up,” would scarcely have been justified, had it not had a foundation in a previous declaration of G.o.d's will. It indicates that Jacob's blessing upon Judah still possessed its power.

In like manner, in the war against Benjamin, according to divine direction, Judah goes up first to the battle, forms the vanguard.

Judges xx. 18. The intentional ident.i.ty of the expression used here and in chap. i., leads us to the supposition that the words, ”Judah shall go up,” have, in both pa.s.sages, the same foundation.

From both of these events, we are led to expect that Judah may be called to occupy a still more important position. The announcement of Jacob regarding Judah, to which the words, ”Judah shall go up,” refer, finds, in these events, evidently but a poor beginning of its complete fulfilment. All, however, which was required in the meantime, was the indication, by gentle touches, of the position which Judah was called to occupy in future times. It is just G.o.d's way to take time in carrying out [Pg 91] His elections; all human conditions must first disappear. After these two intimations, at the end of the time of Joshua (for Judges i. 1, 2, belongs to that period; the words, ”And it came to pa.s.s after the death of Joshua,” do not refer to what follows immediately after, but only to the contents of the book as a whole), and at the beginning of the time of the Judges, Judah retires out of view. During the whole period of the Judges, Ephraim held the supremacy. Under David, the validity of the election suddenly appeared, and the announcement of Jacob found a glorious fulfilment; but again, such an one only as pointed to a still more glorious fulfilment in the future. Before this took place, however,--before s.h.i.+loh came, to whom the obedience of the people was promised, the lamp of Judah was once more to be extinguished, so that, to human eyes, it should be invisible for many centuries.

In 1 Chron. xxviii. 4, David says: ”And the Lord G.o.d of Israel chose me out of all the house of my father to be king over Israel for ever; for He hath chosen Judah to be the ruler, and in the house of Judah, the house of my father, and in the house of my father. He liked me to make me king over all Israel.” David here points to an event by which Judah was raised to be the ruling tribe; and such an election is nowhere else to be found than in Gen. xlix. We cannot for a moment suppose that Judah was elected only in, and with, the election of David. Against such a supposition militates the fact, that even the election of David's house is represented in history as being distinct from the election of David himself; for in 1 Sam. xvi. the decree of G.o.d is first made known, that one of Jesse's sons is to be king; and it is only afterwards that we are told which of them is to be chosen. The expression too, ”He hath chosen Judah to be the _ruler_,” is decisive against it; for this expression has an evident reference to the sceptre and lawgiver in Gen. xlix. But if any doubt should still remain, it would be entirely removed by the parallel pa.s.sage in 1 Chron. v. 2, where, in the words, ”For Judah was mighty among his brethren, and of him the prince was to come,” there is an allusion, which cannot be mistaken, to Gen. xlix.

There cannot be a doubt that David gave to his son the name Solomon, because he hoped that, in his just and peaceful reign, he would be a type of the s.h.i.+loh whom the nation should willingly [Pg 92] obey, just as, in his own reign, there had been the first grand fulfilment of what Jacob had prophesied of Judah's lion-courage, and lion-strength,--of Judah's sceptre and lawgiver. We have here the counterpart of the fact, that the children of Israel, after the first occupation of the country, gave to the seat of the sanctuary the name of s.h.i.+loh. In the case of Solomon, both the name and the substance point to s.h.i.+loh. With regard to the _name_, three out of the four letters of which the name ????

consists, are common to it with s.h.i.+loh. The signification is precisely the same; so also is the form. In ???? as well as in ???? we meet with the very rare case of the ? at the end being thrown off. In _Ewald's_ Grammar, -- 163, these two names are, for this reason, pointed out and placed immediately beside each other. And, with regard to the agreement in the _substance_, we refer to 1 Chron. xxii. 9, where Nathan says to David: ”Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of _rest_, and I will give him _rest_ from all his enemies round about; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days.” We refer, _further_, to 1 Kings v. 4, where Solomon says to Hiram: ”And now the Lord my G.o.d hath given me _rest_ round about; there is neither adversary nor evil obstacle.” We refer, _finally_, to 1 Kings v. 4, 5 (iv. 24, 25): ”He had dominion over all the region on the other side of the river, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings on the other side of the river, and he had peace from all his servants round about. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and fig-tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.”[18]